Nicholas Vachel Lindsay (1879 - 1931)

Born 10 Nov 1879 in Springfield, Illinois, United States

Ancestors

Died 5 Dec 1931 at age 52 in Springfield, Illinois, United States

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Biography

Vachel Lindsay is Notable.

Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was an American poet. He is considered the father of modern singing poetry, as he referred to it, in which verses are meant to be sung or chanted. His extensive correspondence with the poet Yeats details his intentions to revive the musical qualities in poetry as had been practiced by the ancient Greeks. Because of his identity as a performance artist and his use of American Midwest themes, Lindsay became known in the 1910s as the "Prairie Troubador."

"Lindsay's ancestors had been part of the westward migration, and they had believed in the dream; Lindsay, throughout his life, was acutely aware of this and very proud of it. Both sets of his grandparents were Kentuckians, and the Frazees, his maternal grandparents, eventually emigrated to Indiana.

But my great-grandfathers came To the west with Daniel Boone, And taught his babes to read. And heard the redbird's tune. . . .

Thus he wrote in "My Fathers Came from Kentucky." His Grandfather Frazee, the "proud farmer" for whom he had special admiration, was to him a knight of the sprawling land, a kingly democrat who inspired his grandchildren until they felt connected "To all the lion-eyed who build the world—/ And lion-dreams begin to burn within. " ^[1]

Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois where his father, Vachel Thomas Lindsay, worked as a medical doctor and had considerable financial resources.

"His parents wanted him to become a doctor, but he dropped out of medical school after three years and tried to make a living drawing pictures and writing poetry. After struggling for several years and working for a time in the toy department of Marshall Field's, he decided to walk across the United States, trading his poems and pictures for food and shelter along the way. It wasn't nearly as exciting as he thought it would be. He said: "No one cared for my pictures, no one cared for my verse, and I turned beggar in sheer desperation ... [but] I was entirely prepared to die for my work, if necessary, by the side of the road, and was almost at the point of it at times." In 1913, Poetry magazine published Lindsay's poem "General William Booth Enters into Heaven," and it was a big hit. He went on to write many collections of poetry for adults and children, including The Tree of the Laughing Bells (1905) and Every Soul Is a Circus (1929)." ^[2]

On May 19, 1925, at age 45, he married 23-year-old Elizabeth Connor. They had a daughter Susan Doniphan Lindsay in May 1926 and a son Nicholas Cave Lindsay in September 1927.

He appears to have committed suicide in 1931.

Sources

1. ↑ The Vision of this land : studies of Vachel Lindsay, Edgar Lee Masters, and Carl Sandburg" .EDITED BY JOHN E. HALLWAS AND DENNIS J. READER . 1976 https://archive.org/stream/visionofthisland00hall/visionofthisland00hall_djvu.txt
2. ↑ http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/index.php?date=2014/11/10

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vachel_Lindsay

• Poem: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight